Ray's Galactic Tech

Jan 26, 2026 · Cloud Native

Zero‑Downtime Kubernetes Node Maintenance: Complete SOP for Adding and Removing Nodes

This guide presents a step‑by‑step SOP for safely decommissioning and provisioning Kubernetes nodes in production, covering lifecycle labeling, RBAC safeguards, draining procedures, validation checks, handling StatefulSets and local storage, automation tips, and real‑world incident examples to ensure zero downtime and data loss.